Vegan Cranberry Clementine Muffins with White Chocolate

Created by Laura Wright
5 from 3 votes
Vegan cranberry clementine muffins are zesty, moist, tart, and sweet! A delightful vegan breakfast muffin and the perfect festive treat with light spelt flour, clementine zest and juice, fresh cranberries, light brown sugar, flax, and vanilla.
An overhead shot shows vegan cranberry clementine muffins with white chocolate on a speckled plate. A halved clementine and fresh cranberries are also on the plate. A lit candle is nearby.

Vegan cranberry clementine muffins are a moist and perfectly sweet breakfast treat that is filled with fresh cranberries, clementine zest and juice, and vegan white chocolate chips for a bit of extra indulgence. The tender muffin base has light spelt flour, light brown sugar, coconut oil, vanilla, and non-dairy milk (similar to my vegan carrot muffins). Tart fresh cranberries (you can also use frozen) pop in these baked muffins, and they pair beautifully with the zesty citrus and rich white chocolate. The perfect vegan muffin for Fall and Winter, and ready in about 40 minutes.

An up close, head-on shot shows a vegan cranberry clementine muffin on a plate.
An overhead shot shows vegan cranberry clementine muffins with white chocolate on a speckled plate. A lit candle is nearby.
An overhead shot shows some ingredients for a batch of vegan muffins: cranberries, clementine zest and juice, brown sugar, light spelt flour, avocado oil, apple sauce, white chocolate chips, vanilla, and ground flax.

You deserve a festive breakfast treat during this busy time when the sun can be a bit elusive. These muffins bring the brightness with tangy cranberries, zesty clementine, and an indulgent kiss of vegan white chocolate. I love the balance of flavours in this one. Enjoying one of these muffins with a hot coffee or cup of earl grey is so lovely. Simple pleasures!

If you’ve made some of my other muffin/quick bread recipes, the base ingredients will be familiar to you. Light spelt flour, light brown sugar, vanilla, non-dairy milk, apple sauce and ground flax are go-to ingredients that appear in my vegan sweet potato muffins, apple crisp muffins, and spelt banana bread. Once I hit on a good formula, I’m not inclined to mess with it 😉

Ingredient notes & tips for these vegan cranberry clementine muffins:

  • Pascha makes my favourite vegan white chocolate chips.
  • Light spelt is one of my go-to flours for pretty much everything. I like this one from Flourist. It functions similarly to all purpose flour and adds a slight nutty flavour.
  • White whole wheat or all purpose flour will work fine in place of the light spelt flour.
  • Don’t forget to lower the oven temperature from 425 to 350 after 5 minutes! The initial high temperature bake helps the muffin tops to puff up. I learned this trick from Sally’s Baking Recipes.
  • I know I show my muffins without paper liners–I did it for the photos! But these really are easier to extract when you use paper liners as the muffins are quite moist.

I hope that you give these cutie muffins a try. I usually freeze my leftover cranberries for smoothies–they would work brilliantly in this spiced orange cranberry smoothie.

An overhead shot shows a hand working clementine zest into some brown sugar.
An overhead shot shows a flour mixture in a large bowl with chopped fresh cranberries and white chocolate chips.
An overhead shot shows raw cranberry clementine muffin batter in muffin tin cups.
An overhead shot shows vegan cranberry clementine muffins with white chocolate on a speckled plate. A halved clementine and fresh cranberries are also on the plate. A lit candle is nearby.

Vegan Cranberry Clementine Muffins with White Chocolate

Vegan cranberry clementine muffins are zesty, moist, tart, and sweet! A delightful vegan breakfast muffin and the perfect festive treat with light spelt flour, clementine zest and juice, fresh cranberries, light brown sugar, flax, and vanilla.
5 from 3 votes
An overhead shot shows vegan cranberry clementine muffins with white chocolate on a speckled plate. A halved clementine and fresh cranberries are also on the plate. A lit candle is nearby.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Servings 8 -9

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon clementine juice
  • 1 teaspoon ground flax seed
  • ½ cup non-dairy milk
  • ¼ cup avocado oil or other neutral-tasting oil of choice
  • 1 ½ tablespoons apple sauce
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons clementine zest
  • cup light brown sugar
  • 1 ½ cups light spelt flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1 cup cranberries, roughly chopped (fresh or thawed from frozen)
  • ½ cup vegan white chocolate chips

Notes

  • Pascha makes my favourite vegan white chocolate chips!
  • Light spelt is my go-to flour for pretty much everything. I like this one from Flourist. It functions similarly to all purpose flour and adds a slight nutty flavour.
  • White whole wheat or all purpose flour will work fine in place of the light spelt flour.
  • Don’t forget to lower the oven temperature from 425 to 350 after 5 minutes! The initial high temperature bake helps the muffin tops to puff up. I learned this trick from Sally’s Baking Recipes.
  • I know I show my muffins without paper liners–I did it for the photos! But these really are easier to extract when you use paper liners as they are quite moist.

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 425°F and line a muffin tin with paper liners (8 for bigger muffins, 9 for smaller).
  • In a small bowl, combine the clementine juice, ground flax, non-dairy milk, avocado oil, apple sauce, and vanilla. Give it a quick whisk to combine.
  • In a large bowl, combine the clementine zest and light brown sugar. Use your fingers to rub the zest into the sugar. Then, add the light spelt flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cranberries, and white chocolate. Give the mixture a stir to combine. Add the clementine juice and non-dairy milk mixture to the flour mixture. Stir with a rubber spatula until just combined.
  • Portion the muffin batter out into the prepared muffin tin.
  • Bake the muffins at 425°F for 5 minutes. At the 5 minute mark, lower the oven heat to 350°F. Continue baking the muffins for another 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
  • Cool the muffins completely on a wire rack before removing from the muffin tin. Enjoy!
13/12/2023
Posted in: autumn, breakfast, holidays, nut free, snack, sour, sweet, vegan, winter

1 comment

5 from 3 votes (2 ratings without comment)

Recipe Rating




  • Jordan

    5 stars
    I saw this recipe, and I knew I needed to try it. I made these on Saturday, and they were an absolute hit with both my husband and me. I don’t particularly like white chocolate or orange flavored baked goods, but the tartness of the fresh cranberries in this recipe really balances out the sweetness of the white chocolate and clementine zest. I didn’t have any spelt flour, so I subbed 3/4 cup of dark rye flour and 3/4 cup of all purpose flour, and they turned out beautifully. I had plans to make cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning, but I’m going to make these instead. Thanks for another terrific recipe!